Darmstadt (Germany) towards an 80% electric fleet by 2025. 24 eCitaro just deployed
HEAG mobilo, a transport operator in Darmstadt (Germany), is planning to replace almost its entire bus fleet with vehicles that are 100 percent electrically driven in the next four years. On 27 August 2021, 24 fully-electric Mercedes eCitaro city buses officially began operations. This marks the first step towards this goal. HEAG mobilo plans to have replaced […]
HEAG mobilo, a transport operator in Darmstadt (Germany), is planning to replace almost its entire bus fleet with vehicles that are 100 percent electrically driven in the next four years. On 27 August 2021, 24 fully-electric Mercedes eCitaro city buses officially began operations. This marks the first step towards this goal.
HEAG mobilo plans to have replaced the present fleet of around 80 vehicles with electrically operated vehicles by 2025. This launch represents around 36 percent of those. In June 2020 HEAG mobilo began its electromobility campaign with five eCitaro. Once all the diesel buses have been replaced by their electrically driven counterparts, the transport company has calculated that it will save approximately 2.5 million litres of diesel fuel annually and thus avoid around 6,600 tonnes of CO2.
Safety on top on the eCitaro for Darmstadt
The battery technology of the 24 eCitaro – eleven solo and 13 articulated buses – ordered in October 2020 is based on the second-generation nickel manganese cobalt cells (NMC). The advantage here is that they are suitable for both depot and high-performance charging.
All of the electric buses are fitted with all the very best safety equipment Daimler Buses has to offer, the group says. This includes Sideguard Assist which assists the driver when turning and the new Preventive Brake Assist which is the first active braking assistance system for city buses in the world. The driver cockpit also provides preventive protection: a driver’s cab with a large pane of safety glass protects the driver from viral infections and violence. The air in the bus is kept clean using active filters with an anti-viral function. Video monitoring is another safety system on-board. In the articulated buses six cameras monitor the bus interior while the solo vehicles are fitted with four cameras.
